In The AIG Story, the company's long-term CEO Hank Greenberg
(1967 to 2005) and GW professor and corporate governance expert
Lawrence Cunningham chronicle the origins of the company and its
relentless pioneering of open markets everywhere in the world. They
regale readers with riveting vignettes of how AIG grew from a
modest group of insurance enterprises in 1970 to the largest
insurance company in world history. They help us understand AIG's
distinctive entrepreneurial culture and how its outstanding
employees worldwide helped pave the road to
globalization.

Corrects numerous common misconceptions about AIG that arose
due to its role at the center of the financial crisis of 2008.

A unique account of AIG by one of the iconic business leaders
of the twentieth century who developed close relationships with
many of the most important world leaders of the period and helped
to open markets everywhere

Offers new critical perspective on battles with N. Y. Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer and the 2008 U.S. government seizure of AIG
amid the financial crisis

Shares considerable information not previously made
public

The AIG Story captures an impressive saga in business
history--one of innovation, vision and leadership at a company that
was nearly--destroyed with a few strokes of governmental pens. The
AIG Story carries important lessons and implications for the
U.S., especially its role in international affairs, its approach to
business, its legal system and its handling of financial
crises.

Maurice R. Greenberg is Chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr
& Co., Inc. He joined C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. as Vice
President in 1960 and was given the additional responsibilities of
President of American Home Assurance Company in 1962. He was
elected Director of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. in 1965, Chairman
and CEO in 1968 and continues in that role. Mr. Greenberg retired
as Chairman and CEO of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) in
March 2005, after serving as Chief Executive Officer from 1967.
Under his leadership, AIG became the largest insurance company in
the world and generated unprecedented value for AIG shareholders.
During the nearly forty years of his leadership, AIG's market value
grew from $300 million to $l80 billion.

Lawrence A. Cunningham is the Henry St. George Tucker III
Research Professor at the George Washington University Law School
and Director of GW's Center for Law, Economics and Finance (C-LEAF)
in New York. Previous books include Contracts in the Real World:
Stories of Popular Contracts and Why They Matter (Cambridge
University Press 2012). His writingson a wide range of
business and legal topicshave also appeared in leading
scholarly journals and such periodicals as the New York
Times, the Financial Times, and the New York Daily
News.

"Did the U.S. government break the law when it seized control of
American International Group during the financial crisis of 2008?
In 'The AIG Story,' the man who built the giant insurer says that
the answer is yes and explains his reasoning. Former AIG chief
executive Maurice R. 'Hank' Greenberg—along with his
co-author, Lawrence A. Cunningham—also offers a fascinating
company history and an account of how, after Mr. Greenberg's ouster
in 2005, AIG made the disastrous mortgage bets that drove it into
the arms of the feds." (The Wall Street Journal)

"[A] strong, fast-moving and well-crafted book...In effect,
there are two stories here, both well told: the first, the story of
a man who dreamed the American dream and realized it through drive,
determination, and adherence to principle; and the second, the
story of what seems to be an evolving model, with government
officials, always for political reasons, exercising what
increasingly approaches operational control over American business.
It’s to the great credit of Greenberg that he's never
accepted the validity of the second and has devoted his life and
great energies to keeping the first alive and well." (The
National Interest)

"The early chapters of 'The AIG Story' trace the acquisition of
its U.S. units and international expansion, and offer interesting
anecdotes. The book also paints a clear picture of the
hard-driving, profit-centered corporate culture Mr. Greenberg
famously fostered at AIG." (Business Insurance)

"The AIG Story is well documented, telling of how the company
virtually collapsed and Greenberg was pushed out of leadership. The
book has much information to share with financial leaders to help
grow a business and to protect the identity of a company during
periods of economic downturns."—ABA Banking Journal

"The only first-hand account of AIG's rise and near destruction,
this book is a compelling chronicle of one of the great business
success stories of the twentieth century as well as a history of
the evolution of global capitalism over the past six
decades."—Continuity Risk & Insurance

Connect with Wiley Publicity

Former AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg and GW law professor Lawrence A. Cunningham set the record straight in The AIG Story (Wiley; February 2013; $29.95; hardcover & ebook; ISBN: 978-1-118-34587-0), a riveting account of the rise and near-destruction of AIG, the once-great insurance company Greenberg steered for 37 years, well before the turmoil it endured during the 2008 financial crisis. In a page-turner that reveals facts about AIG previously unknown to the public, this book will change the way people view AIG and the story behind its astonishing achievements, offering invaluable lessons for entrepreneurs and businesses in search of success.

The AIG Story narrates how Greenberg, at the age of 27, chanced upon a career in the insurance industry and quickly distinguished himself as an innovative and daring business executive: competitive, entrepreneurial, risk-savvy, disciplined, and willing to challenge the industry’s status quo. In the late 1960s, he led the creation of AIG. By 2005, it was the world’s largest insurance company, generating unprecedented value for its shareholders. During the nearly forty years of his leadership, AIG's market value grew from millions to nearly $200 billion.

Unfortunately, AIG then suffered a reversal of fortune reminiscent of a Greek tragedy. AIG became the target of the notoriously overzealous New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer’s relentless war against AIG—which ultimately forced Greenberg to resign from the company he proudly built —would drive AIG to near destruction. Greenberg and Cunningham detail how Spitzer’s prosecutorial tactics served neither the interests of shareholders nor, more importantly, of the public.

But that was not the end of AIG’s troubles. As the AIG culture Greenberg helped to build faded after his departure, AIG found itself the in the middle of the financial collapse of 2008, teetering on bankruptcy. By the time the crisis was over, AIG was a mere shadow of the great company Greenberg and

AIG’s tens of thousands of loyal employees had created. AIG went from being an American icon with nearly $1 trillion in assets to the verge of extinction at the hands of government officials purporting to “rescue” the company.

In spite of its recent troubles, AIG’s legacy will be that of a pioneer forging new trails, not only in the insurance industry but also throughout the world, by paving the way for globalization. It assembled an innovative, loyal and committed workforce without peer in the industry. Time and again it custom-tailored insurance products to fit clients’ needs, including groundbreaking insurance policies designed for a world plagued by tort litigation, environmental disasters, war, and terrorism.

Thanks to AIG’s commitment to innovation and its clients, the total market value of AIG’s stock under Greenberg’s tenure soared from hundreds of millions in the late 60s to $180 billion—an increase of 19,000%. By 2005, it was the largest insurance company in world history and one of the largest companies in any industry.

The AIG Story captures the excitement behind the birth and evolution of AIG as it conveys a sense of its distinctive strategies and culture. Although the book details the near-destruction of AIG, most of it is about how to build a business: how to develop the vision and promote an innovative entrepreneurial culture focused on risk management, cost control, and profitability. Successful businesses must excel at establishing relationships, creating products, and opening markets. No one knows how to accomplish these goals better than Hank Greenberg.

Topics discussed in The AIG Story include:

How AIG, in the days after 9/11, created a unique aviation insurance pool that would keep the world’s fleet of commercial and passenger aircraft aloft in spite of the newly emerged terrorist threat.

AIG’s key role in the US government’s top-secret mission to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine deep in the waters of the Pacific Ocean at the height of the Cold War.

How AIG managed to do business with Iron Curtain nations and helped pave the way to reopen trade with China, thus setting the stage for globalization.

The “profit center model,” an organizational innovation implemented by Greenberg that boosted profits and became the distinctive hallmark of all the businesses in the AIG empire.

In overcoming institutional resistance to new business ideas and practices, Greenberg was a grandmaster. Learn how he did it in cultures as diverse as Japan, Russian, China, and, of course, in the U.S.

How Greenberg’s emphasis on relationships in business led him and AIG to befriend the late 20th century’s most important global leaders in government, business and diplomacy.

The ways in which AIG, with its vast international network of “global overseas personnel,” became a valuable asset to the U.S. government in the decades leading to globalization.

The true facts behind Spitzer’s attack on AIG and Greenberg’s resignation from the company

The real story behind the U.S. government’s intervention against AIG during the 2008 financial crisis

The latest on Greenberg’s current business endeavors as Chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr and Co., using the practices and policies that made AIG a uniquely world-class company.

AIG’s culture was characterized by a relentless quest to be first—first to develop and launch products, first to open and grow markets, first in performance from earnings to growth to assets. The culture spawned a commitment to innovation unlike the culture at any other insurance company. Creativity was ignited by paying close attention to trends and pockets of hazards where insurance was needed. It paid rich rewards to shareholders, employees and customers alike.

AIG is one-of-a-kind, perhaps impossible to duplicate, but the company remains a promising paradigm for business visionaries wishing to pursue their dreams and achieve unparalleled success. The AIG Story shows how Hank Greenberg put that remarkable paradigm into practice.

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